Title: | Lead poisoning and other human-related factors cause significant mortality in white-tailed eagles |
Author: | Isomursu, M.; Koivusaari, J.; Stjernberg, T.; Venäläinen, E.-R.; Hirvelä-Koski, V. |
Publisher: | Springer |
Date: | 2018 |
Language: | en |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10138/275001 |
Abstract: | The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) suffered a severe population decline due to environmental pollutants in the Baltic Sea area ca. 50 years ago but has since been recovering. The main threats for the white-tailed eagle in Finland are now often related to human activities. We examined the human impact on the white-tailed eagle by determining mortality factors of 123 carcasses collected during 2000-2014. Routine necropsy with chemical analyses for lead and mercury were done on all carcasses. We found human-related factors accounting for 60% of the causes of death. The most important of these was lead poisoning (31% of all cases) followed by human-related accidents (e.g. electric power lines and traffic) (24%). The temporal and regional patterns of occurrence of lead poisonings suggested spent lead ammunition as the source. Lead shot was found in the gizzards of some lead-poisoned birds. Scavenging behaviour exposes the white-tailed eagle to lead from spent ammunition. |
Subject: |
Finland
lead poisoning mercury mortality factors White-tailed eagle |
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